STIRRING

Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.

Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.

The Nowhere Man (blue)Nadeem Chughtaioil on board61cm x 61cm

DAVID GUSTAVSEN

In the Future We Will All Have Self Driving Cars and Perfect Bodies

I'm ordering bike parts on the internet:seat clamps and shifter cables. I look atsaddles and wonder if it's worth paying more.I order them direct from the factoriesin China (Alibaba). The future, by whichI mean the present, is wonderful,and yet immoral. We're all smallyet necessary ball bearings soothingthe operations of a horrible machine.But the parts are cheap, and I'm poor,by which I mean I have lessthan I'm comfortable with. I'm worried.I want a job which pays enough that I cancontinue buying records I never hear, games I never play.I want the time to read all the third-hand books I've stackedup on my bedroom floor. Already,I smell my fingers black with grease. There isso much of the world I want packed upand mailed to me in cardboard boxes.

David Gustavsen is a student at Indiana University's Department of Library Science, where he studies digital graffiti and works to preserve old audio recordings. His work can be found in Really System, Driftwood Press, Zo Magazine, and Stone Canoe.